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The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2011 — So Far

I usually just do a year-end list of The Best Comic Strips and many other topics, but it gets a little crazy having to review all of my zillion posts at once. So, to make it easier for me — and perhaps, to make it a little more useful to readers — I’m going to start publishing mid-year lists, too. These won’t be ranked, unlike my year-end “The Best…” lists, and just because a site appears on a mid-year list doesn’t guarantee it will be included in an end-of-the-year one. But, at least, I won’t have to review all my year’s posts in December…

Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments section of this post.

Here are my picks for The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2011 — So Far:

Whenever You’re Tempted To Use Punishment As A Classroom Management Tool, Remember This Comic Strip: I doubt that there are many of us out there who have not been tempted, and sometimes given into the temptation, to use punishment as a classroom management tool at times. I’ve been guilty of it before and I’ll be guilty of it again, I’m sure. Whenever any of us feel that temptation, though, we might want to remember this Pickles comic strip. It shows what happens next — maybe not as quickly as in the comic, but eventually….

Here’s A Comic Strip To Help Teach The Concept Of “Confirmation Bias”:

This comic strip reminds me of so-called experts in school reform who have never taught in a classroom:

Another strip reformers who have little (if any) direct experience in education but have unhelpful ideas — and the power to push them. A little information can be dangerous. The difference, of course, is that unlike the gophers in this strip, when some “school reformers” push a new and shiny idea that blows up, our students, their families and us are the ones who get hurt. The school reformers usually do fine.

Here’s a Dilbert comic strip. Is there any connection to what’s happening in many schools now?

Many teachers use Calvin and Hobbes comic strips in lessons. There is now a Calvin and Hobbes search engine where you can type in your query — homework, reading, etc — and then get the text and, in many cases, a link to the strip itself.

Another commentary on school reformers, perhaps:

Here’s a Dilbert comic strip on how to communicate effectively (or not):

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3 Comments

Hi Larry,
I follow your posts from time to time, by means of TeacherLingo updates. Always I pick up something useful, including real English expressions for me. I guess you can easily notice I’m not a native speaker of English.
It’s very original to make up those comic strips for teachers: they’re ery graphical examples of the abstract stuff we have in mind.
One of the strips I liked most is the one about teaching-theory-makers, who’ve never taught real people.
Thank you
From Granada, Spain

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